How Much Would You Pay to Learn from a Veteran Trader?

[zdo]

On one level a mentor would not charge one thin dime – unless s/he needs the money. (and then the question becomes is s/he eligible to mentor )
The mentor would feel ‘payed’ by being blessed to have found someone willing to do the work, answer the tough questions, and develop in accordance with their own nature.
Most potential mentors believe that the most important function is imparting knowledge / sharing shortcuts and techniques. NOT! The mentor’s most important function is asking the right questions of the student at the right time - Questions that engage the ‘whole brain’. Qualified questions will test of the efficacy of the relationship for both sides and will prevent either party from ever ‘wasting’ the other’s time or money.

Ask the mentoree to clarify their goals for the process. Ask the mentoree to place a value on what that would be worth to him/her when goals are accomplished and s/he is operational at new level. Have mentoree contract to pay that amount ( or percentage of profits) if s/he feels the original goals were accomplished in the training period.

[brownsfan019]

	Quote:	zdo
	On one level a mentor would not charge one thin dime – unless s/he needs the money. (and then the question becomes is s/he eligible to mentor ) The mentor would feel ‘payed’ by being blessed to have found someone willing to do the work, answer the tough questions, and develop in accordance with their own nature. Most potential mentors believe that the most important function is imparting knowledge / sharing shortcuts and techniques. NOT! The mentor’s most important function is asking the right questions of the student at the right time - Questions that engage the ‘whole brain’. Qualified questions will test of the efficacy of the relationship for both sides and will prevent either party from ever ‘wasting’ the other’s time or money. Ask the mentoree to clarify their goals for the process. Ask the mentoree to place a value on what that would be worth to him/her when goals are accomplished and s/he is operational at new level. Have mentoree contract to pay that amount ( or percentage of profits) if s/he feels the original goals were accomplished in the training period.

Well said zdo - how to find someone that wants to mentor but is not doing it just b/c of the $.

This whole thing is not an easy business decision.

I wonder if my friend will do it or not...

[CandleWhisperer]

In the true sense of the word, a mentor would not charge. He/she would want to lend a hand to someone because someone first lent them one on the way to the top.

Here, we use the term mentor in lieu of the words teacher or coach. Jordan had a coach. Tiger Woods has a coach. Most of the elite persons in their fields have coaches. Why would trading be different? Note that Tiger's coach teaches the best golfers in the world, but IS NOT one himself. He is the best Golf Coach in the world.

The issue may be that the secret to trading is that there are no secrets. Put as a question, "are there truly any secrets to trading?" But a mentor/coach should be FAR more than "This is when you buy, or this is when you sell". A mentor teaches you how to set up a business. How to handle the pull back as CNBC reports GDP and all the anchors are gloom and doom. Or conversely, how to disregard perma bull BOB Pasoni (SP?) and focus on what the Tape is actually saying.

As far as price, I think the mentor need only charge enough to cover living expenses and externalities. The money made in the market would just go to grow the account.

[darthtrader]

The only thing I could see doing would be to have your own personal clerk/coffee maker/slave. I would somewhat expect that if someone truely would want to take the time to teach me something along these lines I shouldn't be able to afford them in straight up money terms.
On the other end when I get to the point that I would consider myself a master trader, I don't see what someone could really offer if they weren't related to me.
When I eventually have a kid this stuff will start very early, haha.

[zdo]

Good distinctions btwn coaching and mentoring and teaching, Candle.
All three want to help the student help themselves
Teachers want to impart the information and methods and get out.
Coaches want to work with the individual or unit at levels beyond information and skills.
Mentors want to model exploration in a ‘right living’ sort of way.

As I have posted elsewhere, the chances of finding a trading coach that can see the fine details (like Tiger’s coach) of how you can improve instead of trying to impose his own subjective improvement plan onto the student are EXTREMELY low. 90% of trading coaches are ‘wounded healers’, really in it to fix themselves. Mostly they attract traders who have already sustained significant ‘psychological damage’ (in the MarkDouglas sense), and they are not anywhere close to competent enough to help the trader recover… They leave a trail of low value service behind them - and as soon as they ‘get it’ for themselves they no longer coach

Golf is a single game to refine a limited number of swings. Trading is thousands of games. Of the remaining 10% of coaches, one would still have to find one with an sufficient level of style and personality match. “It’s not whether you can be a good trader; it’s whether you can find the trading that’s good for you.” (B Steenbarger in ETP) and if you are being coached by someone who has style biases even just a little bit out of phase with yours– the relationship accomplishments will be drastically reduced. Bottom line – finding a coach who “construes” across enough dimensions almost the same as you is like finding that one particular single cell individual in the ocean.


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Darth, exposing that baby to such material is just plain wrong and you know it.
I'm calling Child Protective Services.